The flavor in this set is AMAZING. I have never laughed this much at a set of card reveals. I thought Arms Dealer was as good as it gets, and I was wrong.
There are certain bosses that are a piece of cake, that you almost sleepwalk through: Garr. Kodobane. Ahune. Corrupted Ancient. Alone they're just a convenient opportunity to stock treasures; even as part of a boss pair they're not a big deal.
There are others that are gross, fully capable of shredding your group alone or together. Baron Geddon. Vaelastrasz. Echo of Medivh. Flipping Popsicooler.
Depending upon the lineup, I've experienced differences of *20 levels* or even more between what my group can handle and what is too much to overcome. It's amazing.
I hadn't thought about that artillery barrage ploy, which is cute... but the problem is that leaves you with a mishmashed team for the first boss, and the first boss can be a real gatekeeper, especially when it's Onyxia or Vaelastrasz or something of that difficulty.
My other regret is that attacking comps have basically no chance. Enemy bosses get so much attack that you'll burn yourself up with the quickness, Warchief's Blessing or no. That's not to say you should avoid attackers; Slitherspear is a clutch tech piece for Naga when there's a caster that just needs to die, for example. (Shek'zara comes to mind, as does Yogg.) But a comp built around attacking just takes too much damage to survive, which I found to my cost that Pirates couldn't tackle near the challenges, say, a lower-level Nature or Holy Humans comp could.
(It doesn't help that Vanessa's Dreadblades appear bugged to *never* combo instead of *always* combo.)
I've been finding Naga to be a very flexible and potent team for boss rush. You have an expendable taunt in Athissa's Parjesh equipment (that benefits from treasures and Vashj's equipment), and anti-attack tech from Athissa herself. Vashj and, to a lesser extent, Zar'jira help you counter fast bosses. Azshara brings heavy damage and just a little sustain with Xal'atath. Karathress and Slitherspear are less broadly applicable, but Kara can bring good damage safely with Cataclysm Bolt and Slitherspear is great when you need someone who can attack. You have 2/2/2 role coverage, and they all have access to either one or two team-buff treasures that will always help (Secrets of the Naga and Azsharan Influence). It's just a well-rounded team without major weaknesses, and it has less repetition in its play patterns than, say Nature teams. What do you all think?
Is it just me, or did Blizzard implement a matchmaking change that drastically increased the number of bot opponents they give you? It seems like any time I lose a game, it throws me a bot opponent as if to say, "Cheer up, have a freebie". Is anyone else seeing this?
The only downside to Rotting Necromancer is that it competes with your other undead for Bonecaller resurrections. Besides that, it fits in perfectly to undead priest's gameplan, especially in helping you consistently fish up the deathrattle-y mainstays.
I think the change to Shockspitter is more meaningful than it seems at first blush. It doesn't just delay when the Hunter goes for the kill, it also complicates their midgame. A common tactic is to weave Shockspitter in as a board-control tool and use Devouring Swarm to recover it and retain their finisher. Making Shockspitter more expensive makes all such maneuvers harder to pull off and increases the odds the Hunter will lose board control in the midgame (or salvage it at the cost of their finisher).
The Vanessa change is not nearly enough for the Pirate tribe. The trouble with Pirates is that most of their scaling options other than Vanessa (Peggy and Salty Looter) rely on Hoggarr to facilitate, and that's a big hit-or-miss thing. Vanessa is not a viable alternative, even buffed. She'll rarely attack twice (in no small part due to the tribe's paucity of keywords) and even if she does the second attack is likely to help few units, meaning that her overall scaling value is just so low.
It's funny to me that just about every high-tier Undead minion got nerfed. Funny, but deserved. They were all so strong and built so quickly that it almost didn't matter what you were doing before, if you got to a high tier and hit one or two of them you could instantly pivot to Undead and get a game-winning board from nowhere. Good riddance.
I like Scrapsmith. The big thing there is that Scrapsmith can go in many more builds. There are only two Quillboar who naturally can get shields, so Gemsplitter could very easily be underwhelming unless the lobby included the right other tribes. Scrapsmith is more universal because you can give any ol' minion Taunt.
I really don't know what else they do with Toxfin. If you keep it at 6 to meet the design goal of "making it so we don't have to assume a board full of poison when murlocs are in the pool", murlocs are in danger in the midgame. Push it to 5 and it's too easy to get.
I am looking forward to the nerfs to Undead's endgame. The sheer amount of stats generated by Soulsplitter + Summoner + Deathwhisper is astounding-- enough to just overpower pretty much any other endgame strat. I know the Sin'dorei Straightshot is supposed to be the tech, but once the undead player has taunt on three targets, it's game over, because no one can afford to run two Straightshots without fatally compromising their own board.
Vanessa needs help. Pirates in general need something else they can do than "hope to get Hogger".
Here's some fun things (yes, fun is allowed!) that I've discovered with some of the more recent mercs.
-C'Thun and the Spud Bomb. Mystery Nodes always present the danger of making you deal with the Spud Bomb for the rest of the run. C'thun's Maw equipment makes the bomb work for you: the bomb counts as a minion, so C'Thun eats it as a battlecry if it's on the enemy side, dealing heavy damage before the fight even starts.
-What if the bomb is on your side of the board? No problem if you've got anyone in your party who can bounce to the bench, like Brightwing or Garona with Shadowstep. That opens a spot on your board for C'Thun to come down on the next turn and eat the bomb after it's swapped over.
-Speaking of Shadowstep: Infinite Garonas! Garona is eligible for the clone treasure that creates a copy of her as a battlecry. The AI loves to target clones, but you can lean into this by using her Shimmering Toxin move to turtle up. If the clone is still alive when the turn ends, it also has the Shadowstep equipment, so it also returns to your hand... and creates a clone *of itself* as a battlecry when replayed. You can generate infinite Garonas this way.
-Chromie is only okay as a merc in her own right, but her equipment options make for some hilarious outcomes. Body Euphoria makes Scabbs (yes, Scabbs!) a total murder machine. Stroke of Midnight (which makes slow moves go first) has some good natural combos, but a great one is with Murloc Holmes with the fill-the-board-with-Watfins treasure. You can bury enemies beneath a pile of Watfins before they can move.
-The Lich King is fun in frost comps. Why is that? you might ask. The Lich King doesn't deal frost damage. Au contraire: the Helm of Domination equipment *does* deal Frost damage to slow enemies (the tooltip didn't use to say this, but it does now), and the frost comp is great at slowing enemies.
-Tidemistress Athissa can very nearly solo the Coral Elemental boss fight. Once you kill enough fish for Coral to actually take damage, hit it with Riptide (the move that deals backlash damage on attacks). Each hit from Riptide procs a new forced attack from Coral, which procs Riptide, which forces a new attack... assuming Coral's attack hasn't built up much yet, it will kill itself on your face.
-Nemsy can almost solo the Darkmoon Rabbit. As long as the Rabbit keeps doing standard attacks, Nemsy will always be able to get Boggy up in time to take the hit. If you have Dream Brew, even better!
-For even more Nemsy fun, Dream Brew's bonus Boggy will always spawn all the way on the right. Using the Bog Moss equipment (that reduces damage taken), putting Nemsy on the left lets you cover all your mercs with Bog Moss protection... or you can put Nemsy all the way on the right and have the two Boggys protecting each other.
No, I specified it because you did the classic "poisoning the well" fallacy of trying to forestall other opinions by disqualifying them out of hand. Then again, since you're continuing the exact sour attitude I was critiquing in the first place, I think the effort was wasted.
Part of that is because they get more benefit from discover effects than any other class, and in these same patch notes is a nerf to the frequency of DKs getting discover effects in Arena. That said, I'll agree with you that Malignant Horror is an arena monster.
I have definitely had lobbies where I've gone, "Crud, I'm getting some elementals/pirates/big minions strats, but there are murlocs in the lobby that'll eat me if I do, I guess I have to force something different". I like that murlocs having a board full of poison is no longer a given.
A deck with [Hearthstone Card (JIVE, INSECT) Not Found], by definition, has no pathetic cards... Since any of them could be Ragnaros!
The flavor in this set is AMAZING. I have never laughed this much at a set of card reveals. I thought Arms Dealer was as good as it gets, and I was wrong.
Candleraiser art is 10/10.
Shaman with all totem synergy. Rogue with all weapon buffs and no weapons.
There are certain bosses that are a piece of cake, that you almost sleepwalk through: Garr. Kodobane. Ahune. Corrupted Ancient. Alone they're just a convenient opportunity to stock treasures; even as part of a boss pair they're not a big deal.
There are others that are gross, fully capable of shredding your group alone or together. Baron Geddon. Vaelastrasz. Echo of Medivh. Flipping Popsicooler.
Depending upon the lineup, I've experienced differences of *20 levels* or even more between what my group can handle and what is too much to overcome. It's amazing.
I hadn't thought about that artillery barrage ploy, which is cute... but the problem is that leaves you with a mishmashed team for the first boss, and the first boss can be a real gatekeeper, especially when it's Onyxia or Vaelastrasz or something of that difficulty.
My other regret is that attacking comps have basically no chance. Enemy bosses get so much attack that you'll burn yourself up with the quickness, Warchief's Blessing or no. That's not to say you should avoid attackers; Slitherspear is a clutch tech piece for Naga when there's a caster that just needs to die, for example. (Shek'zara comes to mind, as does Yogg.) But a comp built around attacking just takes too much damage to survive, which I found to my cost that Pirates couldn't tackle near the challenges, say, a lower-level Nature or Holy Humans comp could.
(It doesn't help that Vanessa's Dreadblades appear bugged to *never* combo instead of *always* combo.)
ETC also performs at the Darkmoon Faire, which is why the ETC card came from that expansion. (They performed *first* at the Faire, in fact.)
I've been finding Naga to be a very flexible and potent team for boss rush. You have an expendable taunt in Athissa's Parjesh equipment (that benefits from treasures and Vashj's equipment), and anti-attack tech from Athissa herself. Vashj and, to a lesser extent, Zar'jira help you counter fast bosses. Azshara brings heavy damage and just a little sustain with Xal'atath. Karathress and Slitherspear are less broadly applicable, but Kara can bring good damage safely with Cataclysm Bolt and Slitherspear is great when you need someone who can attack. You have 2/2/2 role coverage, and they all have access to either one or two team-buff treasures that will always help (Secrets of the Naga and Azsharan Influence). It's just a well-rounded team without major weaknesses, and it has less repetition in its play patterns than, say Nature teams. What do you all think?
Is it just me, or did Blizzard implement a matchmaking change that drastically increased the number of bot opponents they give you? It seems like any time I lose a game, it throws me a bot opponent as if to say, "Cheer up, have a freebie". Is anyone else seeing this?
The only downside to Rotting Necromancer is that it competes with your other undead for Bonecaller resurrections. Besides that, it fits in perfectly to undead priest's gameplan, especially in helping you consistently fish up the deathrattle-y mainstays.
I think the change to Shockspitter is more meaningful than it seems at first blush. It doesn't just delay when the Hunter goes for the kill, it also complicates their midgame. A common tactic is to weave Shockspitter in as a board-control tool and use Devouring Swarm to recover it and retain their finisher. Making Shockspitter more expensive makes all such maneuvers harder to pull off and increases the odds the Hunter will lose board control in the midgame (or salvage it at the cost of their finisher).
The Vanessa change is not nearly enough for the Pirate tribe. The trouble with Pirates is that most of their scaling options other than Vanessa (Peggy and Salty Looter) rely on Hoggarr to facilitate, and that's a big hit-or-miss thing. Vanessa is not a viable alternative, even buffed. She'll rarely attack twice (in no small part due to the tribe's paucity of keywords) and even if she does the second attack is likely to help few units, meaning that her overall scaling value is just so low.
It's funny to me that just about every high-tier Undead minion got nerfed. Funny, but deserved. They were all so strong and built so quickly that it almost didn't matter what you were doing before, if you got to a high tier and hit one or two of them you could instantly pivot to Undead and get a game-winning board from nowhere. Good riddance.
I like Scrapsmith. The big thing there is that Scrapsmith can go in many more builds. There are only two Quillboar who naturally can get shields, so Gemsplitter could very easily be underwhelming unless the lobby included the right other tribes. Scrapsmith is more universal because you can give any ol' minion Taunt.
I really don't know what else they do with Toxfin. If you keep it at 6 to meet the design goal of "making it so we don't have to assume a board full of poison when murlocs are in the pool", murlocs are in danger in the midgame. Push it to 5 and it's too easy to get.
I am looking forward to the nerfs to Undead's endgame. The sheer amount of stats generated by Soulsplitter + Summoner + Deathwhisper is astounding-- enough to just overpower pretty much any other endgame strat. I know the Sin'dorei Straightshot is supposed to be the tech, but once the undead player has taunt on three targets, it's game over, because no one can afford to run two Straightshots without fatally compromising their own board.
Vanessa needs help. Pirates in general need something else they can do than "hope to get Hogger".
Looks like a good list to me!
Here's some fun things (yes, fun is allowed!) that I've discovered with some of the more recent mercs.
-C'Thun and the Spud Bomb. Mystery Nodes always present the danger of making you deal with the Spud Bomb for the rest of the run. C'thun's Maw equipment makes the bomb work for you: the bomb counts as a minion, so C'Thun eats it as a battlecry if it's on the enemy side, dealing heavy damage before the fight even starts.
-What if the bomb is on your side of the board? No problem if you've got anyone in your party who can bounce to the bench, like Brightwing or Garona with Shadowstep. That opens a spot on your board for C'Thun to come down on the next turn and eat the bomb after it's swapped over.
-Speaking of Shadowstep: Infinite Garonas! Garona is eligible for the clone treasure that creates a copy of her as a battlecry. The AI loves to target clones, but you can lean into this by using her Shimmering Toxin move to turtle up. If the clone is still alive when the turn ends, it also has the Shadowstep equipment, so it also returns to your hand... and creates a clone *of itself* as a battlecry when replayed. You can generate infinite Garonas this way.
-Chromie is only okay as a merc in her own right, but her equipment options make for some hilarious outcomes. Body Euphoria makes Scabbs (yes, Scabbs!) a total murder machine. Stroke of Midnight (which makes slow moves go first) has some good natural combos, but a great one is with Murloc Holmes with the fill-the-board-with-Watfins treasure. You can bury enemies beneath a pile of Watfins before they can move.
-The Lich King is fun in frost comps. Why is that? you might ask. The Lich King doesn't deal frost damage. Au contraire: the Helm of Domination equipment *does* deal Frost damage to slow enemies (the tooltip didn't use to say this, but it does now), and the frost comp is great at slowing enemies.
-Tidemistress Athissa can very nearly solo the Coral Elemental boss fight. Once you kill enough fish for Coral to actually take damage, hit it with Riptide (the move that deals backlash damage on attacks). Each hit from Riptide procs a new forced attack from Coral, which procs Riptide, which forces a new attack... assuming Coral's attack hasn't built up much yet, it will kill itself on your face.
-Nemsy can almost solo the Darkmoon Rabbit. As long as the Rabbit keeps doing standard attacks, Nemsy will always be able to get Boggy up in time to take the hit. If you have Dream Brew, even better!
-For even more Nemsy fun, Dream Brew's bonus Boggy will always spawn all the way on the right. Using the Bog Moss equipment (that reduces damage taken), putting Nemsy on the left lets you cover all your mercs with Bog Moss protection... or you can put Nemsy all the way on the right and have the two Boggys protecting each other.
Fun!
No, I specified it because you did the classic "poisoning the well" fallacy of trying to forestall other opinions by disqualifying them out of hand. Then again, since you're continuing the exact sour attitude I was critiquing in the first place, I think the effort was wasted.
I've never played ramp druid, I downvoted you for the attitude.
Part of that is because they get more benefit from discover effects than any other class, and in these same patch notes is a nerf to the frequency of DKs getting discover effects in Arena. That said, I'll agree with you that Malignant Horror is an arena monster.
I have definitely had lobbies where I've gone, "Crud, I'm getting some elementals/pirates/big minions strats, but there are murlocs in the lobby that'll eat me if I do, I guess I have to force something different". I like that murlocs having a board full of poison is no longer a given.
Big Shaman on the menu, maybe?